Shelving is used extensively for stocking and storing products or merchandise in a variety of stores. Most stores have immovable shelving which is arranged back-to-back between aisleways. The nature of the fixed shelves makes it difficult to add and remove products. Moreover, such shelves make difficult the rotation of the shelved products, which involves moving the older stock to the front of the shelf and positioning new stock behind the older stock. For a number of important merchandising considerations, it is desirable that merchandise be displayed at the front of a shelf so that the customer is induced to purchase such forwardmost article. For example, if the goods are perishable or are subject to becoming stale (e.g. cigarettes, fruit juices, dairy products, or any item with an expiration date or a freshness date), it is important that the articles be removed in a first in, first out basis to maintain freshness. Also, if merchandise is not displayed at the front of a shelf, it may not catch the shopper's eye, which may cost the merchant sales.
In order to automatically move an item forward as the one before it is removed, numerous forward feed devices have been devised. There devices generally fall into three categories. The first category is inclined tracks, relying on gravity to feed, slide, or roll products forward. Gravity feeding is unpredictable in that various materials slide easier than others because of different weights and frictional interfaces between the products and the track. The second category employs conveyor belts which still use gravity to effect forward movement. These devices typically are cumbersome, expensive, and complicated, due to the need to properly tension and track the conveyor belts. The third category uses spring-biased paddles to feed the product forward. Such paddle-based forward feed devices have been found useful for certain merchandise.
However, a merchant with two or more different depths of shelving must purchase tracks of two or more depths, to employ the spring-biased paddles. There thus exists a need for a track system that is capable of accommodating shelving of varying depths.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved track system for merchandise display which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.